- Person
- James Franck
- Lived
- 1882–1964
- Field
- Atomic physics
- From
- German-American
The story
In 1920 the University of Göttingen was famous for mathematics, the home of David Hilbert and Felix Klein, but less so for physics. That year Max Born accepted its chair of theoretical physics on condition that his old friend James Franck, whom he had met as a student at Heidelberg, lead experimental physics there. On 15 November 1920 Franck became professor and director of the Second Institute for Experimental Physics.
He was allowed two assistants and brought the spectroscopist Hertha Sponer with him from Berlin, while Robert Pohl, a gifted lecturer, headed the First Institute and handled most of the teaching. Franck refurbished the laboratory with the latest equipment, partly paying for it out of his own pocket.
Over the next thirteen years the two friends made Göttingen one of the great centres of the new quantum physics. Although Born and Franck published only three papers together, they discussed every one of their papers with each other. Places in Franck’s laboratory became highly sought after, and he proved a gifted and inspiring teacher, choosing well-defined thesis topics and teaching students how to do original research. His doctoral students included Hans Kopfermann, Arthur von Hippel, Wilhelm Hanle, Fritz Houtermans and Heinz Maier-Leibnitz. According to the Nobel Foundation, his wider circle included Patrick Blackett, Edward Condon, Robert Oppenheimer and Eugene Rabinowitch, many of whom became leading scientists. Franck’s own work there produced the idea that became the Franck–Condon principle.
The golden age ended when Franck resigned in protest against the Nazi civil service law in April 1933 and left Germany later that year. Yet in 1953 the town of Göttingen named Franck an honorary citizen, and he died there in 1964, aged 81, while on a visit, a sign of reconciliation with the place where he had done so much.
The scientists Franck trained carried his methods to universities in Europe and America. One of them, Eugene Rabinowitch, later worked with him again in Chicago and drafted the 1945 Franck Report, which urged that the atomic bomb not be used on Japanese cities without warning.
Why it matters
The scientists Franck trained went on to shape physics, chemistry and science policy across Europe and America.
About James Franck
Nobel physicist whose electron-collision experiment proved atoms have quantised energy levels; he resigned in protest in 1933 and later led the Franck Report against a surprise atomic attack.
More about James Franck
- James Franck championed women in physicsJames Franck actively advanced the careers of women physicists, notably Hertha Sponer and Hilde Levi, at a time when few women held research posts.
- The Franck–Condon principle explains how molecules glowIn 1925 James Franck proposed the mechanism, later developed by Edward Condon into the Franck–Condon principle, that governs how molecules absorb and emit light.
- James Franck proved atoms take energy in fixed stepsIn 1914 James Franck and Gustav Hertz showed electrons lose exactly 4.9 electronvolts to mercury atoms, proving atomic energy is quantised; they won the 1925 Nobel Prize.
- James Franck devoted his later years to photosynthesisFrom the 1930s James Franck studied how plants turn light into chemical energy, heading Chicago's Photosynthesis Research Group until 1956.
- James Franck resigned in protest against Nazi lawsOn 17 April 1933 James Franck, exempt as a war veteran, resigned his Göttingen chair in protest, the first German academic to do so over the Nazi civil service law.
- The Franck Report urged a warning before the bombOn 11 June 1945 the Franck Report urged that the atomic bomb be demonstrated in an uninhabited place rather than used on Japanese cities without warning.
- Franck helped dismissed Jewish scientists find workBefore leaving Germany in November 1933, James Franck helped Frederick Lindemann of Oxford find posts abroad for Jewish scientists dismissed by the Nazis.
Sources
- James Franck – Biographical NobelPrize.org
- James Franck Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.